Orbitz Launches Groundbreaking Hotel Search Experience with Industry-Leading Property Comparison Features

CHICAGO, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: OWW) today announced the launch of a new hotel search experience on its flagship travel website Orbitz (www.orbitz.com).  The enhancements introduced to the Orbitz website line up with the Orbitz commitment to give consumers the information, tools and resources needed to make smart decisions when booking a hotel, and reinforce the promise of the tagline in the new Orbitz advertising campaign "When You Orbitz, You Know."

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"In the past 18 months Orbitz has led the industry with the launch of groundbreaking innovation around the hotel booking experience, including Orbitz TotalPrice hotel search results and Orbitz Hotel Price Assurance," said Barney Harford, president and CEO, Orbitz Worldwide.  "Now with the new Orbitz hotel search experience and side-by-side comparison tools we're delivering powerful new capabilities that make it easier for customers to choose the hotel that's right for them."

The new Orbitz hotel search experience includes:

• In-path side-by-side comparison of hotel details
• Expandable, interactive maps showing both hotel location and real-time room rate pricing
• Google Street View showing the hotel and its surrounding neighborhood
• Filters and sort options based on price, star-rating, review score and amenities
• Saved Hotels enabling customers to create "speed dial" shortcuts to favorite hotels
• Unfiltered reviews from verified customers, photos, videos and virtual tours

With the launch of its comparison tools Orbitz is the first major online travel website to enable detailed side-by-side property comparison upfront on the initial hotel search results page.  This complements Orbitz TotalPrice hotel search results, which shows customers the total nightly price (base rate plus taxes and fees) upfront on the initial hotel search results page, in contrast with competitors who force customers to select their hotel before displaying the final cost.

Other benefits of booking a hotel with Orbitz include:

• Automatic Hotel Price Assurance refunds: if another Orbitz customer books the same prepaid hotel room for less, we'll automatically send you a cash refund for the difference
• Enhanced Low Price Guarantee: Orbitz customers who find their prepaid hotel room available for a lower price on any site can receive a refund for the difference and a $50 discount on a future hotel or vacation package booking. Plus, Orbitz allows customers to submit a claim right up to the time of the property's cancellation deadline

The powerful combination of Orbitz Hotel Price Assurance and the enhanced Low Price Guarantee provides the strongest price protection of any online travel company. Plus, Orbitz no longer charges change and cancellation fees on hotel bookings(1), making it easier for customers to modify their bookings as plans change.

"The launch of this new, faster and better Orbitz hotel search experience comes as we migrate our hotel path onto the Orbitz Worldwide global technology platform.  This is the same platform to which we recently migrated our European ebookers websites," added Barney Harford.  "The new global platform allows our product development teams to innovate significantly faster than we could on our legacy platform, accelerating our pace of innovation going forward to the benefit of both our customers and our supplier partners."

(1) Orbitz does not charge a fee to change or cancel a hotel reservation. Some hotels may have non-refundable rates or impose fees that Orbitz is required to pass along, please see individual hotel policies for details. Excludes hotels booked as part of a package, e.g. flight plus hotel bookings.

About Orbitz.com

Orbitz.com (www.orbitz.com) is a leading online travel company that enables travelers to search for and book a broad array of travel products, including airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises and vacation packages.  Since launching its Web site to the general public in June 2001, Orbitz.com has become one of the largest online travel sites in the world and has led the industry with innovations including Flight Price Assurance, Hotel Price Assurance and Total Price hotel search results. On Orbitz.com consumers can search more than 80,000 suppliers worldwide including airlines, hotels and car rental companies.  Orbitz.com is owned by Orbitz Worldwide.  Stay connected to Orbitz.com with sale alerts, exclusive promotions and engaging conversations by following Orbitz on Facebook (www.facebook.com/orbitz), Twitter (www.twitter.com/orbitz) and the Orbitz Travel Blog (www.orbitz.com/blog).

About Orbitz Worldwide

Orbitz Worldwide is a leading global online travel company that uses innovative technology to enable leisure and business travelers to research, plan and book a broad range of travel products. Orbitz Worldwide owns a portfolio of consumer brands that includes Orbitz (www.orbitz.com), CheapTickets (www.cheaptickets.com), ebookers (www.ebookers.com), HotelClub (www.hotelclub.com), RatesToGo (www.ratestogo.com) and the Away Network (www.away.com).  Also within the Orbitz Worldwide family, Orbitz Worldwide Distribution delivers private label travel solutions to a broad range of partners including many of the world's largest airlines, and Orbitz for Business (www.orbitzforbusiness.com) delivers managed corporate travel solutions for corporations. For more information on partnership opportunities with Orbitz Worldwide, visit corp.orbitz.com.  Orbitz Worldwide uses its Investor Relations website to make information available to its investors and the public at http://www.orbitz-ir.com. You can sign up to receive email alerts whenever the company posts new information to the website.

SOURCE Orbitz.com